Chapter 79

“The distinguished guest from the opposite box requests to join you. Shall we allow him entrance?”

From beyond the door, the man standing guard announced the visitor in a deep, resonant voice.

He came all the way here? How fortunate.Thinking it a stroke of luck, Hunter immediately gave permission for the visitor to be admitted. Contrary to his earlier claim, Victor had not come to watch the play, but to commission a task from him. However, in hopes of gaining an upper hand in their negotiations, Hunter had planned to avoid meeting him for a while.

But now, with things taking such a turn, largely due to Eugène, he had little choice but to receive him. Bargaining and profit could come later; first and foremost, he had to ensure his own survival.

“Show him in.”

At his command, the guard opened the door himself. Two men entered, dressed just well enough to avoid drawing attention in the slums, much like Eugène.

Eugène turned to verify their faces and, upon doing so, widened his eyes. The man who entered first was indeed Victor, just as Hunter had said. But the one following behind… Goodness gracious! Eugène barely swallowed the gasp that nearly escaped his throat. What on earth was that man doing here?

“What brings you here so suddenly? To think you would even abandon the play mid-performance. As you can see, I was in the middle of a personal engagement.”

Hunter, adopting a far more glib and jocular tone than he had used with Eugène, said. Victor Adelphe heard this and smiled faintly. He tried not to show it, but his expression seemed somewhat troubled.

“My companion here expressed a wish to meet the famed Chasseur in person.”

He called Hunter by his nickname, imperial style, and introduced the man who had come with him. Hunter looked at the masked man standing a step away from Victor.

Though he wore ordinary clothing, there was no mistaking the aristocratic air about him. The young man concealed his face with a half-mask of white, the sort favored by nobles who sought to disguise their identities when frequenting brothels. Yet the mask covered little more than his eyes and the bridge of his nose. Below it, finely shaped lips and a chiseled jawline drew the eye irresistibly.

Bloody hell. Has there ever been a man with a face like that?

Hunter nearly whistled in awe but held himself back just in time. To his knowledge, Victor Adelphe was not only the Emperor’s milk brother but also the owner of the rising Adelphe Trading Company. However, what was publicly known of him paled in comparison to what lay hidden in the shadows.

Even Hunter, for all his cunning, had not fully grasped the depths of Victor’s secret dealings, and if such a man was treating this masked figure with such deference, the guest was likely of exceedingly high rank, if not a nobleman.

Were Hunter to jest as he usually might, such as, “A face like that is wasted on a noble. If you had sold yourself to men, you could have bought out the whole of Cat Alley”, he might well be spirited away without even the mice or the birds knowing, and have his tongue ripped out.

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“Please, do be seated.”

The box they shared, fortunately, had two rows of chairs. In the front was the long bench Hunter had occupied, while behind it stood two armchairs in a neat line.

Hunter gestured for his guests to take the seats in the back row, then turned and dragged the front bench around to face them.

“Pardon the clumsy arrangement. I fear the seating is less than refined.”

Even after dragging furniture before a noble guest in such an undignified manner, Hunter cheerfully asked for their understanding as if it were nothing. Victor silently glanced at the Emperor, who replied with a serene smile, signaling that it was of no consequence. But even so, not once did he look Eugène’s way.

That thorough, calculated disregard caught Hunter’s attention. Sensing something amiss between the two, he deliberately turned to Eugène and offered a warm smile, laying bait, as it were.

“You came all this way to visit me, and things ended up like this. Would you mind waiting in another room while I entertain the guests?”

“No need. I have finished my business, so I shall be leaving now.”

“What? You are leaving already? That will not do. Do you know how many years it has been since you last came to my home? And you are leaving just like that? We have not even had a drink yet.”

Hunter deliberately leapt to his feet, making no effort to hide his dismay.

A drink? When have we ever shared a drink, face-to-face?Eugène, who could see straight through him, regarded him with a cold gaze.

“There will be another chance. I will be going.”

“There is no need for you to step aside. You will learn of this soon enough, so you may as well stay and hear it now.”

The Emperor, seated with one leg crossed over the other in a posture of careless arrogance, stopped Eugène just as he was about to leave the room. Though his voice was calm and quiet, it carried a compelling force.

Eugène could not help feeling anxious that the Emperor had acknowledged him so openly in front of the keen-eyed Hunter. When it came to business, Hunter was the type to strip a man to the bone. Letting him see a weakness before negotiations had even begun was far from ideal. Eugène’s back stiffened with tension at the thought that the man might discern the Emperor’s true identity.

Even so, he could not simply pretend not to know the Emperor and leave. As a subject, how could he walk away after seeing the Emperor arrive in the slums with only one close aide?

In truth, Eugène had not truly intended to leave. He had only pretended to walk away from the theatre so he could wait outside and escort the Emperor safely home afterward.

Eugène silently fumed because of the Emperor, who seemed to care nothing for his own safety, and slumped down on the chair across from him.

Hunter glanced back at him with a sidelong look.

“Oh? Do you two know each other?”

“I believe it is we who came to request your services. Do I owe you an answer to that question?”

Hunter, seizing the opportunity, tried to probe, but the Emperor was not someone who could be taken lightly. He brushed the question aside with a graceful ease and leaned back in his chair. He did not explicitly state his identity, but neither did he make any attempt to conceal that he was of noble birth.

This left Hunter discomfited. Despite his unease, he could not bring himself to say anything that might offend his guest.

For one to carry such dignity in every slight movement, he could not be some mere upper noble. At least a Marquis, or perhaps higher. And since he has been brought by Adelphe, a man aligned with the Emperor, he was likely close to the Emperor himself.

Even so, Hunter did not once consider that he might be facing the Emperor in person. It was hard to imagine, even in old tales for children, that someone of such stature would dress plainly and wander through the heart of the brothel quarter.

“May I ask what brings you here?”

“We know the Jackdaws handle a great many stolen goods. We also know you maintain a sizeable smuggling route that extends beyond the port, even out to open waters.”

It was Victor, the man who could be called the Emperor’s right hand, who spoke in his stead. Rather than presenting a commission, he was laying bare the details of another’s business, an act that drew a crooked glance from Hunter.

“What exactly are you trying to do right now?”

“There is no need to deny it. We are not looking to use that knowledge against you. What my guest desires is simply the information network built atop it. More precisely, he seeks knowledge of the hidden smuggling routes used by the Confederation of Five Nations.”

Hunter, having listened with patient forbearance, finally let out a short laugh as though finding the situation amusing.

“Well, now. This is something else. I cannot even call this a commission. What is this, robbery? Are you asking me to hand over the foundation of my entire business?”

“We do not intend to touch any other part of your business. If you agree to accept this commission, we will compensate you for any losses incurred. What we want is only one thing, and that is to identify the routes through which human resources from the Confederation of Five Nations secretly slip into the Empire.”

“You say it so simply, but that route happens to be one of my chief sources of profit. Of all smuggled goods, nothing brings in more money than human trafficking.”

By “human trafficking,” Hunter did not mean the selling of people, but rather facilitating illegal entry.

The Lex Ardica, the imperial code of law, imposed several years of forced labor on criminals but made no provision for life sentences. Thus, there were no slaves in the empire. Furthermore, with such a vast land, human resources were abundant, so there was no need to bring in foreigners who could not even speak the language.

For that reason, the demand for smuggling lay not with the empire, but with the Confederation of Five Nations. Those who had committed crimes and needed a place to hide, or those whose houses had fallen in the wake of constant power struggles, often fled to the empire in hopes of saving their lives.

This is because the empire’s climate and terrain made it more livable than other nations, and its people were of a similar race, so it was the most suitable country for those seeking shelter. Their lives were sold at a steep price, and in return, Hunter offered them freedom and safety.

Listening to the two converse, Eugène understood why Victor had sought out Hunter. He could not say he failed to grasp the reasoning, knowing the mission Victor had been entrusted with, but regrettably, the approach was flawed. If Victor continued with such methods, winning Hunter’s cooperation would be impossible.

Perhaps because he himself had once saved his life through illegal passage, Hunter paid special attention to managing the smuggling routes. Like other dealers, he charged a high price, but he never allowed passengers to be mistreated or starved during the voyage, and he certainly never committed the cruelty of tossing them overboard for convenience.